Category Archives: Brother

03.27.14
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Def Leppard and the Origins of my Crippling Public Speaking Phobia

I'm hot, sticky sweet.

I’m hot, sticky sweet.

Before I got the ol’ heave ho from Catholic school at the end of my 6th grade year, I had been quite the model student. Hell, even during and after my ousting from Catholic school, I was just about as perfectly behaved of a student as you can imagine. Did I just write “hell”? I guess I’ve come a long way.

My parents and brother did a good job insulating me as a child. And being 7 years younger than my brother and the 2nd child, I had a lot of experience entertaining myself. I spent hours sitting underneath the dining room table and reading books. Or saddling a Strawberry Shortcake doll on one of my My Little Pony dolls and letting them gallop around for a while. Or gaping at the TV. I was a pretty self-sufficient kid. Continue reading →

02.26.14
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Growing up in a plaid flannel teenage wasteland

Plaid flannel grunge

Not a day went by where I wasn’t decked out in some plaid flannel

It took me almost 13 years to discover that I loved – that I lived for – music. Blame it on the fact that when I was a young child, my mom’s radio tendencies skewed toward classical music, Neil Diamond or Katrina and the Waves. Or perhaps my dad is to blame for my lack of interest in music as a child. He showed zero interest in music then, and to this day I have no idea if he prefers Dave Matthews or David Lee Roth. All I know about my father’s musical tastes is that he vomited during a Kenny G show many years ago, and for that, I am a proud daughter.  Continue reading →

02.13.14
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Everybody wants to be a Superhero…right?

I wanted to take them home, put them in jars and love them forever, too!

I wanted to take them home, put them in jars and love them forever, too!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was totally obsessed with the Super Friends cartoon when I was a kid. Don’t get me wrong, I was also bat shit crazy for the Smurfs (ahem, it was totally bogus that Smurfette was evil when she had dark hair), Alvin and the Chipmunks (yes, I had the Chipmunk Rock vinyl – whip it good!), and obviously, Scooby Doo, but Super Friends holds a special place in my heart.

Continue reading →

02.07.14
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Detroit Rock City

This is pure luxury compared to the way way back of our Subaru

This is pure luxury compared to the way way back of our Subaru

I could probably fill an entire book with my ramblings about Detroit and my impressions of that city. There’s a White Stripes song called The Hardest Button to Button where Jack White sings:

I got a backyard with nothing in it, except a stick, a dog and a box with something in it.

Never has a more vivid, perfect picture of Detroit been painted with words. Continue reading →

02.02.14
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Get your hot dogs!

Yum!

Yum!

Having been born seven years after my brother, I am what you might call an “accident.” And like many children born during the 70’s, my brother came onto the scene not quite nine months after my parents said “I do” while wearing their lovely, hippie formal wear. My dad rocked some major sideburns and my mom walked down a daisy-covered aisle wearing a simple white cotton dress that she sewed herself. Continue reading →